Self-Help, Inc.

looking at makeover culture • looking for ways to make over culture

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Self-Help "Guru" Indicted on Three Counts of Manslaughter in Sweat Lodge Deaths

The Associated Press and The New York Times are reporting that James Arthur Ray, the motivational speaker who presided over a sweat lodge "ritual" that left three people dead and more than a dozen hospitalized, has been charged with three counts of manslaughter. The deaths occurred last October, when Ray convened a "spiritual warrior" retreat at which participants were pushed to — and obviously beyond — their limits.

Ray has been a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is one of many self-appointed, self-help "gurus" who advocate the doctrine of The Secret: that a mysterious universal "Law of Attraction" governs our lives, drawing into our experience only those things that we wish for or focus upon. I have to wonder how that idea's working for James Arthur Ray now.